So, as a developer, you probably write a small amount of code, and then test it to see if it works before you move onto something else. This is because you don’t want to write thousands of lines of code and find that doesn’t work. Stating the obvious here. So myself and a few others(soon) are working on a php application where I want to implement some form of version control, most likely subversion since we all know how to use it, somewhat. My question is how do I implement this writing process stated above with writing, and then testing.
My idea was to set each developer up with their own workstation including a web server, and php/mysql etc.. so they can checkout the repo and then test on their own computer as they are writing. I’m really looking for some direction here with that. Currently we aren’t using version control as there are only two developers and we simply use a shared directory thats located on the web server. When we make changes, we can view them immediately on the web server. Any input on this? Whats the best way to handle multiple developers when in the development process of an application?
There are a number of different ways to approach this:
1) Each developer has a whole web server stack on their machine, deploys to it, and tests there, then checks in working code.
2) There’s a separate test/integration machine. Developers take turns deploying to that machine, do their testing, then check in working code.
3) You use branches in Subversion. Development happens on a branch, and it’s OK to check in broken code on a branch. There may be a branch for each developer, or a branch for each feature, or whatever. The developer checks in code onto the branch, checks it out on the separate test machine, tests, fixes, then checks the working code onto the trunk.
Which one is right depends on how big your team is and how complex your server setup is. Choose one that makes sense for your team.